Michael A. De Leon is a graphic designer by day, but wears many hats in his off time. In 2004, after several years of covering the Spurs, he started Project Spurs, a Spurs team fansite as an outlet to provide content to Spurs fans, while continuing to write for himself and learning the ins and outs of online publishing and web design. He has since built a writing team and started a popular weekly Spurs podcast called the Spurscast.

Note: This is an mySA.com City Brights Blog. These blogs are not written or edited by mySA or the San Antonio Express-News. The authors are solely responsible for the content.

Analysis of the Spurs without Parker

By now all of Spurs nation has heard of the loss of Tony Parker for the rest of the regular season due to a fractured hand. Now Spurs fans are thinking of what kind of impact will this have in the Spurs as the playoffs fast approach.

Friend of Project Spurs, Jonathan Lee of Accuscore, gives a breakdown of the Spurs without Parker. Doesn’t seem much of a difference mainly due to supporting cast of the Spurs. Enjoy.

By Jonathan Lee

AccuScore Analyst

Before Tony Parker’s injury, the Spurs were projected to finish 6th in the West with 49.3 wins – just ahead of the Thunder and the Blazers. Now with the news that Parker will miss 6 weeks with a wrist injury San Antonio is projected to finish – 6th in the West.

Despite losing Parker, a 3-time All-Star, for possibly the rest of the regular the forecast for San Antonio does not change significantly. His absence will mean more minutes for George Hill and Roger Mason with Manu Ginobili assuming more ball-handling duties. Keith Bogans and Malik Hairston could see increased minutes on the wing as well.

The non-change in the forecast is less an indictment on Parker - currently averaging 16.5 points and 5.7 assists - and more circumstances beyond his influence at this point in the season. The Spurs are basically locked into one of the final three playoff spots in the West. They currently sit 1.0 game behind Oklahoma City and 1.5 ahead of Portland. More importantly, the Spurs are 5.5 games ahead of 9th place Memphis. With only 22 games remaining, it would take a complete collapse for San Antonio to fall out of playoff position. The presence of Hill, Ginobili, and Tim Duncan makes that scenario extremely unlikely.